The Odes of Horace

‘We seem to have been granted access to a treasure: vulnerable, threatened by the very transience that Horace’s odes resist and lament, and therefore all the more highly to be prized’CLIVE WILMER

The genius of William Morris found expression in many different media. Here, for the first time, we have reproduced one of his gems of manuscript illumination: The Odes of Horace, a treasure of the Bodleian Library in Oxford.

Production Details

Facsimile volume

6¾" x 5"

192 pages

Printed on Tatami paper in coloured inks with gold and silver foil

Bound in Indian smooth-grain goatskin with 5 raised bands on the spine

Gold blocked on spine, edges and doublures

Shuffled pages

Commentary volume

11" x 8¾"

64 pages

Frontispiece portrait

Set in Poliphilus

Bound in Freelife Merida Forest paper

Shuffled pages

Solander box

12½" x 9¾"

Bound in buckram with cloth-lined recess

Blocked in silver and gold foil on front and spine

This exquisite edition in detail

'I can’t say how delighted I am with [The Odes of Horace], and how honoured I feel to have been involved with the project.'CLIVE WILMER

The printing of these delicate pages was entrusted to Castelli Bolis in Bergamo, Italy, who are specialists in gold-foil printing, and the binding to the craft bindery of Smith Settle in Yorkshire. Each detail – from the varied shades of gold in the decorations to the green-black tone of the goatskin binding – has been reproduced with meticulous care to match as closely as possible the original volume. The book is housed in a decorated solander box, alongside a handsome commentary volume. This essential companion contains a full-verse translation by William Gladstone and an absorbing essay on the genesis of the book and the unfolding of Morris’s passion for illumination.

Binding William Morris's The Odes of Horace

The Folio Society's facsimile edition of William Morris's The Odes of Horace; the binding of this beautiful book was undertaken by Smith Settle Printing and Bookbinding in West Yorkshire. Here you can watch how they bring the finishing touches to a Folio Society book.

The delicate art of illumination

The vision behind William Morris’s entire creative output
hinged upon a vehement aversion to what Walter Benjamin
described as ‘the age of mechanical reproduction’. His
illuminated manuscripts typify this belief. Beautifully
calligraphed and intricately ornamented, they stood in
defiant opposition to what Morris perceived to be the drab
and soulless fruits of modern labour. He believed in the
assiduous creation of beauty, both for its own sake and as
a path to wisdom; and the delicate art of illumination was,
for him, a means of pursuing this ideal.

Between 1869 and 1875, Morris produced 18 illuminated
books, resurrecting a tradition that had faded with the
invention of printing at the end of the 15th century.
Among these were A Book of Verse and the Rubáiyát of
Omar Khayyám and two of the greatest latin texts: The
Aeneid and The Odes of Horace. Morris included all four
books of The Odes, the last of which, in its unfinished form,
provides a fascinating record of his creative method.

‘If I were asked to say what is at once the most
important production of Art and the thing to be
most longed for, I should answer, a beautiful House;
and if I were further asked to name the production
next in importance and the thing next to be longed
for, I should answer, A Beautiful Book'
WILLIAM MORRIS

As young men, Morris and his friend and
collaborator Edward Burne-Jones – who would
later become one of the great Pre-Raphaelite
artists – had been deeply influenced by John
Ruskin’s The Stones of Venice, in which Gothic architecture is
presented as not merely aesthetically but philosophically
superior to all other styles. In each of Morris’s many projects –
from the interior design of the Red House, his home in Kent,
to the incomparable Kelmscott Chaucer – he was intent on
crafting objects of deeply considered, lasting beauty. He was
horrified by the joylessness of the production line, seeing it as
antithetical to the chief pleasure in life: the enjoyment of labour.

The creation of beauty, whether in architecture, books or
furniture, was fundamental to Morris’s humanist philosophy
and to the political beliefs which eventually made him a
figurehead of the socialist league. Like all of his work,
Morris’s illuminated manuscripts are bound up in this radical
world view.

‘A man at work, making something which he feels
will exist because he is working at it and wills it,
is exercising the energies of his mind and soul as
well as of his body’WILLIAM MORRIS

Morris’s fascination with illumination began early in his life.
While studying at the University of Oxford in the
early1850s, he often visited the Bodleian Library to study
the manuscript collection. Fittingly, the same library now
houses his Odes of Horace, though up until now it has been
something of a hidden treasure, rarely available for public
view. Having experimented with pseudo-gothic scripts in the
1850s, he went on to teach himself calligraphy, mastering
the art with typical rigour and flair. He also acquired his own
collection of 13th- and 14th-century manuscripts, and
became an advisor to the British Museum on the purchase
of such artefacts.

Morris learnt from 16th-century writing manuals, shifting his
focus from medieval models to Renaissance and Persian
examples. His goal was secular fulfilment, rather than the
monastic ethos of self-abnegation and patience associated
with medieval illumination. For Morris, the art of
meticulously crafting each letter and adorning each page
gave the written word the hallowed form it deserved. As
John Ruskin argued, illumination made the book ‘a noble and
sacred thing, to be respected and revered’.

Morris’s ‘painted books’

Each of Morris’s ‘painted books’, as he called them, is an
object of delicate beauty. Mostly incomplete, they are
remarkable both in their artistry and grace, and as records
of Morris’s bid to revive this ancient art form. The Odes of
Horace manuscript was produced in 1874, a difficult period
in Morris’s life: his wife Jane had begun an affair with his
friend, the painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and it may be that
absorbing himself in this project was in part therapeutic.
His daughter May described illumination as a ‘serene and
contemplative’ activity in which he immersed himself.

Each of the four books of The Odes opens with a display
page in a markedly different style from the rest of the book.
These pages – which are in varying degrees of completion –
were created in collaboration with Edward Burne-Jones and
Charles Fairfax Murray, and are among the most elaborate
illuminations Morris ever created. Profusely decorated, they
combine glistening floral patterns with images of idealised
human faces and figures. The calligraphy is a version of
Renaissance italic, while the floral decoration is closest to
the Persian model, prefiguring the tapestry Morris would
create five years later at Kelmscott Manor, and the foliated
borders of the Kelmscott Press books. However, this
gem-like private volume has an ethereal quality quite unlike
those later creations.

Horace: the Latin poet beloved by the Victorians

Horace was perhaps the most popular Latin author of the
Victorian age – graceful, balanced and astute, he was seen as
representing the values of the Victorian gentleman. He lived
during the reign of Augustus, between 65 BC and 8 BC, and
is regarded as the finest Roman lyric poet. His influence has
been tremendous, not least in the work of John Keats,
Christina Rossetti, Robert Frost, and Edward Fitzgerald in
the Rubáiyát.

'Every one of the Odes, as a rule, has a spirit,
genius, and movement of its own'WILLIAM GLADSTONE

The Odes consist of more than 100 short poems adapted
from the lyric verse of Greek poets such as Pindar and
Sappho. Their themes are diverse – from love and friendship
to patriotism and religion – and they often have a strong
moral vein. Alfred Tennyson described them as: ‘jewels
five-words long, that on the stretched forefinger of all time /
sparkle for ever’. Today they are widely quoted: ‘carpe diem’
(‘seize the day’) and ‘dulce et decorum est’ (‘sweet and fitting
it is’) are but two famous examples.

Gentle ways bewitch me now,
nothing charms that stirs to strife;
libels all I disavow;
Prithee love me, give me life.
FROM ODE XVI, BOOK I

Reviews

"This is a wonderful facsimile of William Morris' hand-written and illuminated 'Odes of Horace'. What lifts this far above most fascimiles of this type is the excellent way the original metal (gold, si..." [read more]

"This is a wonderful facsimile of William Morris' hand-written and illuminated 'Odes of Horace'. What lifts this far above most fascimiles of this type is the excellent way the original metal (gold, silver) has been transferred into this fascimile. It's absolutely gorgeous. While the book was never finished by Morris, I also find it fascinating to see the contrast between finished and unfinished pages since you can see how he approached his work. I can't read the Latin original and from what I read, the translation chosen for the commentary volume might not be ideal since it seems to have bowlderized the Latin original, but in the end I enjoy the book simply for its beauty. What a treasure! I truly hope the Folio Society will publish more of Morris' illuminated books." [hide full review]

Review by rbalkris on 22nd Jul 2015

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5/5

"Absolutely exquisite little volume that will remain a treasure on my bookshelf. The attention to details is extraordinary. The gold and silver details on this illuminated manuscript are spectacular. ..." [read more]

"Absolutely exquisite little volume that will remain a treasure on my bookshelf. The attention to details is extraordinary. The gold and silver details on this illuminated manuscript are spectacular. If you are a lover of the paper printed book you owe it to yourself to have this exquisite facsimile that demonstrates the power and beauty of the book form. Superlative!" [hide full review]

Review by anon on 19th Jul 2015

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Illustrations:

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Rating:

5/5

"The most exquisite single volume Folio have ever produced, presented in a solander box beautifully decorated inside and out. The leather binding of the volume is superb with five bands, gold titling a..." [read more]

"The most exquisite single volume Folio have ever produced, presented in a solander box beautifully decorated inside and out. The leather binding of the volume is superb with five bands, gold titling and edge ornament, fantastic grain and heady scent, but it is the silver and two tones of gold used for the illumination throughout the pages within which really make this volume quite so beautiful and unique. The use of real gold and silver inks means that Morris' intricate ornament glitters and glistens like the original, in contrast to the more subdued colour of imitation gilt ink so often seen in other facsimile volumes. Sublime, worth every penny!" [hide full review]